FlyHigh wrote:I'm curious why they're dumping Manning unless Hextall has decided that Hak can't be trusted with him. Think Manning got overplayed, but you could do a lot worse for a No.7. Wonder if his asking price was too high or if he wants to go to a place where he'll have a guaranteed spot.

Morin is no longer waiver exempt next year, so he will almost certainly be on the roster out of camp.

That is not what he said according to others. Filppula might be back, but it would be post July 1 and depending on other moves. Basically, he sounds like Plan B or C.

Yeah I see Bill's interpretation now. Looks like Hex views Flip as a backup if he can't get another C in UFA/trade. That's not so bad then.

FlyHigh wrote:I'm curious why they're dumping Manning unless Hextall has decided that Hak can't be trusted with him. Think Manning got overplayed, but you could do a lot worse for a No.7. Wonder if his asking price was too high or if he wants to go to a place where he'll have a guaranteed spot.

7th D men don't average 18 minutes a night, but Manning is redundant with Gudas and MacD signed for a few more years and Morin/Myers close. For Manning himself, he and his agent should be looking to get him the biggest and longest deal available to him in UFA and that would not be with the Flyers anyway. He will get a deal somewhere as a 3rd pairing d man, probably for 2-3mil per year.

Bill is posting Hex and Hak excerpts from the presser:

All assistant coaches coming back, but roles may change. Hex wants to add a veteran C and bring in some penalty killing help. Sees C> D>G as the order of priority for adding players.Hex views Frost as a longshot for next year.Hak specifically called out Laughton as having a great playoff series.

Ron Hextall very much not closing the door on the possibility of Carter Hart making the NHL next season, but get the sense the odds are still slim.

Yeah I agree. Hopefully the line about shifting roles applies to Lappy at least. Hex and Hak both seem to be fooled by a small sample of good PKing to end the year, which also coincided by the team being very disciplined down the stretch out of necessity.

Hexy on Lappy and PK: We have looked hard at that. We aren't happy with where we are. But I thought we got better late in season and pretty good in playoffs. We will look to add in that area over the summer. I am convinced we will be better there next year, and we need to be.

Hak on PK: Take sample sizes. Not good enough early. We looked at a lot of things. Late in season, final 15 games, we were closer to wheere we needed to be, not quite there. In POs, was one of few areas we did well enough overall to win the series.

Not thrilled with Lappy coming back. hopefully he is given another job in the organization and they bring in a PK coach who has a clue.If Manning could ever learn to go out and try to more than he can he could be ok as a 6/7. But Hak overused him and many times Mannings bad pinches or positioning got him in trouble. I agree Flip is not a plan B for bringing back. Think the Flyers may be busy this summer and at the draft. just a guess.

Kind of lucky we got out of that period with the lead, but I take it. Kind of weird how the Flyers broadcast highlighted MacDonald's involvement in the Vegas goal. They tried to play it off as a forced error, but all I could think was that a good defenseman would have recognized that the window for their change had passed (particularly when they're playing the far side from the bench).

Excellent game by Elliott. Surprisingly lackluster game by Ghost. Can't fault him on the second goal against too much since he was slashed in the hand, but he also had some bad breakout plays that were immediate turnovers as well.

chaosof99 wrote:Excellent game by Elliott. Surprisingly lackluster game by Ghost. Can't fault him on the second goal against too much since he was slashed in the hand, but he also had some bad breakout plays that were immediate turnovers as well.

Anyway, two points well earned.

I thought it was a slash to the hands as well, but it was actually a cockshot.The reaction, understandably, was instantaneous. He couldn't even finish the pass.